GEA Group AG (Bochum, Germany; www.geagroup.com) has further strengthened its Process Equipment division through the acquisition of the Dutch company Bloksma (Almere, Netherlands). Bloksma manufactures intercoolers for marine engines, oil coolers for industrial applications, double-pipe coolers for various industrial processes,…
Royal DSM N.V. (Heerlen, Netherlands; www.dsm.com) has announced plans for a substantial capital expenditure program, expected to involve up to $450 million, to increase production capacity in its Dyneema business. DSM Dyneema’s sales have grown by more than 15%/yr in…
BASF SE (Ludwigshafen, Germany; www.basf.com) has announced plans for a significant expansion of its production plant for the biodegradable plastic Ecoflex at the company’s Ludwigshafen site. The move will raise Ecoflex production capacities from the current 14,000 to 60,000 m.t./yr.…
Wacker Schott Solar GmbH, a joint venture (JV) of Wacker Chemie AG (Munich; www.wacker.com) and SCHOTT Solar GmbH (Alzenau, Germany), today officially commissioned a new factory in Jena for the production of silicon wafers for the solar industry. After just…
Arkema (Colombes, France; www.arkema.com) has announced a plan to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its Forane 22 production plant at the Changshu industrial facility in China, by incinerating HFC 23, a by-product of HCFC 22 manufacture. The project has…
Dragon Mining Sweden AB (Storuman) has purchased the CyPlus CCS Cyanide Control System from CyPlus GmbH — a wholly owned subsidiary of Evonik Industries AG (Essen, Germany; www.evonik.com) — for its Svartliden operation in Sweden. “Working closely with Svartliden’s personnel,…
Shell Global Solutions International B.V. (The Hague, Netherlands; www.shell.com/home/content/globalsolutions-en) and South Atlantic Refinery Company S.A. (SARC) recently signed an agreement to license technology for SARC’s new greenfield refinery, planned to start up in Aracaju in the Sergipe region of Brazil…
Mergers and Acquisitions Siemens acquires Chemitreat Group to expand water-treatment technology March 3, 2008 — Siemens announced that it has acquired the Singapore-based private limited Chemitreat Group to expand the water-treatment business in South East Asia. Chemitreat will become part…
Polyglycolic acid (PGA) has good properties: a very high gas impermeability, even under 80% humidity; biodegrability; high mechanical strength; and good moldability, which makes it a promising polymer for applications such as medical devices and barrier films. But up to…
High-pressure die-cast (HPDC) aluminum alloys cannot normally be heated to high temperatures due to the presence of pores containing entrapped gases, which lead to the formation of surface blisters. CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering (Melbourne, Australia; edlinks.chemengonline.com/7371-548) has found that…